Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to data storage systems, and more particularly to method embodiments for data restoration in a computing storage environment.
Description of the Related Art
Data backups are mechanisms well known in the industry that are used to allow users to restore their data due to failure of a component, human error, software corruption, or some other type of disaster. Data backup and archive procedures are implemented to solve two basic problems—data protection against hardware, software and human failure and data retention for reference or audit purposes. The former type of protection is typically short term, i.e., data is retained so that a file or system can be recovered to a point-in-time to some point within the recent past, usually within some number of weeks. The latter is usually long term, e.g., data has to be retained and remain accessible for several years. An exemplary data protection system may involve continuous or near-continuous asynchronous replication of the data to be protected to a second location, usually as part of a secondary storage environment across a network. If the primary location fails, the data stored in the secondary location may then be restored to the primary location.